Even Snowmen Say: Stop Global Warming!

I found these delightful holiday towels last season and wanted to share them with you. Have you found similar holiday decorations? If so, post a picture to our Facebook site! If not, try these!

Seeing items like this in everyday stores reminds me how far we’ve come in battling global warming. Not to be punny, but it does “warm” my heart and inspire me to keep going. Clearly there is enough awareness and support out there to benefit the company economically. That is good news.

But There Is More To Be Done

Fight Coal Export

Here in the Pacific Northwest, coal companies would like to construct export terminals to transport coal from Wyoming and Montana’s Powder River Basin overseas. Not only would this fly in the face of the Pacific Northwest’s growing commitment to a clean energy future, but the transport of coal across the western U.S. would place people and wildlife at risk from breathing in coal dust, filling wetlands used by migrating birds and salmon, and increased noise in our towns along the way. Power Past Coal is working to prevent the construction and use of coal export terminals in the places we call home. Without these terminals, there is no point to transporting the coal to our ports, through our towns and wilderness, to destinations far overseas. Learn more about what you can do to help Power Past Coal.

Mounds of coal surround massive machinery. Photo credit: Paul K. Anderson

Stop the Keystone XL Pipeline

The Keystone XL Pipeline would cut through America’s agricultural heartland, across the precious Ogalalla Aquifer and through the homes of Midwestern families, sandhill cranes, sage grouse, and walleye.  National Wildlife Federation has worked tirelessly to stop this pipeline from being built and prevent the 2,000+ mile transport of dirty tar sands oil from northern Alberta to our Gulf Coast refineries. This November, the Obama Administration announced it will explore alternative routes for the pipeline, requiring much-needed additional environmental review and likely delaying a decision for at least another year. This decision was a victory for the campaign, but a new problem has surfaced in recent days: a proposed environmental rider in the end-of-year payroll tax-cut legislation package would effectively shortcut the environmental review process. Learn more about what you can do now to help stop the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Prepare now for the effects of climate change

Even as we battle for a clean energy future, the choices made in the past will require us to prepare for the effects of climate change in the present. Check out these easy tips for energy and water conservation, green purchasing, green gardening, and the three R’s – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Here in the Seattle office, we are devoted to preparing for the effects of climate change now. Our work includes:

• Partnering with the North Pacific Landscape Conservation Cooperative on their efforts to tackle climate change at the landscape scale.
• Adapting large-scale water management systems for current and future environmental conditions in theYakima River Basin and California Central Valley.
• Protecting Puget Sound floodplains by working to reform the National Flood Insurance Program, reconnect the vital floodplain habitats that reduce the negative impacts of flooding, and better protect people and wildlife in a changing climate.

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author’s.

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